Writer Profile

Books & Essays

Description: Gerald Thurmond's essay is entitled "Words for the Birds."

Bartram?s Living Legacy: the Travels and the Nature of the South reprints Bartram?s classic work alongside essays acknowledging the debt southern nature writers owe the man called the ?South?s Thoreau.? The book was nominated for the Georgia Author of the Year Award.

"The ecosystems
that once defined the southern landscape have disappeared, as
though some cataclysmic geological event had simply obliterated
them. We know of them chiefly through William Bartram's Travels
published in 1791. It would be about two centuries before a group
of southeastern writers/naturalists/activists began to survey the
landscape that we are left with, and to think about the
consequences of what has been lost, and the power, beauty, and
richness of what remains. Dorinda Dallmeyer, the editor of this
wonderfully conceived volume, has been at the center of that
group. Her idea of combining the text of the Travels with
reflections by contemporary southern writers is a brilliant one.
Bartram remains an indispensable writer, whose work has been
neglected for too long. Now at last he, his book, and the land he
describes have their champions. Some of the essayists here
focus on Bartram the man, some on Bartram the naturalist, some on
Bartram the writer and artist. And some focus, as he himself had
done, on the landscape and ecology of the South as it now is, and
as it once was.

Some of the essayists in this book I have known and admired for
years; some are entirely new to me. They do not speak with one
voice, or on behalf of any preconceived agenda. But their
contributions, taken all together, indicate that the South now has
its own distinctive tradition of environmental literature.
Bartram, not Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, or John Burroughs, is its
progenitor, and this book, I believe, will come to be seen as its
cornerstone."

Description: Gerald Thurmond's essay is entitled "The Old Man and the River."

The South Carolina Upcountry is a paradise for the outdoor enthusiast. From the piedmont to the foothills, nature lovers and sportsmen alike discover adventure among pristine streams and waterfalls, winding trails and hardwood forests, and the region?s best-kept secret: its state parks.

Outdoor Adventures in the Upcountry is a collection of true stories about hunting, fishing, paddling, and other recreational pursuits by the area?s best nature and outdoors writers. This colorful, large-format book is beautifully illustrated with dozens of images by nature photographer Ted Borg, whose work has appeared for decades in South Carolina Wildlife magazine. The book is edited by Michel Stone and Lydia Dishman.

Head to a cool mountain stream with award-winning novelist Ron Rash of Clemson. Stroll a summer wood with Furman University essayist Joni Tevis. Paddle a meandering Spartanburg creek with John Lane, author of the book Chattooga. Among the adventures you?ll enjoy along the way are a deer hunt among loblolly, a hike around the gem that is Lake Jocassee, and the acrobatics of ravens at Caesars Head. Join these thirty-six writers as they explore and celebrate all that the Upcountry of South Carolina has to offer the nature lover in you.

Book Review #1:“Like most people I love good stories, and when those stories
revolve around places I know, I like them even better. This mix of
outdoor stories is a delight to read and serves as food for the
imagination. For me they brought back memories that need to return.
Perhaps they will do the same for you.” --Rudy Mancke,
director of nature programming, SCETV

Description: The Woods Stretched for Miles gathers essays about southern landscape and nature from nineteen writers with geographic or ancestral ties to the region. This remarkable group encompasses not only such well-known names as Wendell Berry and Rick Bass but also distinctive new voices, including Christopher Camuto, Susan Cerulean, and Eddy L. Harris.

From the savannas of south Florida through the hardwood uplands of Mississippi to the coastal rivers of the Carolinas and the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the range in geography covered is equally broad. With insight and eloquence, these diverse talents take up similar themes: environmental restoration, the interplay between individual and community, the definition of wildness in an area transformed by human activity, and the meaning of our reactions to the natural world.

Readers will treasure the passionate and intelligent honorings of land and nature offered by this rich anthology. With the publication of The Woods Stretched for Miles, southern voices establish their abiding place in the ever-popular nature writing genre.

Book Review #1:?This is an important book?the first of its kind exclusively on the Southeast. It should appeal to general readers who wish to read about the genre in the Southeast, about the long and complex relationship between American culture and nature, and also about controversial environmental issues in the region.?
?John Murray, editor of American Nature Writing

Book Review #2:"I am delighted with the very concept of this anthology of Southern nature writing. There are dozens and dozens of recent scholarly books on environmental literature and anthologies of nonfiction nature writing, nature poetry, and environmental writing in general, including a number of regionally oriented collections. But, so far, other than Molly Westling's ecocritical studies of Southern fiction, few of these recent publications are explicitly devoted to Southern environmental literature. For this reason, there is a significant void that the The Woods Stretched for Miles is intended to fill?and I think it fills the void quite well."
?Scott Slovic, author of Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers

Book Review #3:"The Woods Stretched for Miles is by turns lively, enchanting, provocative, amusing. It will be a great gift, and a great anthology for classroom use."
?Ann Fisher-Wirth, ISLE